Gene Hackman’s 911 caller distraught over couple’s mysterious death

SANTA FE, New Mexico – Jesse Kesler, the man who made the urgent 911 call after finding the bodies of Gene Hackman and Betsy Arakawa, is still distraught over the couple’s mysterious deaths.

Kesler, who knew the couple well, declined to describe what he saw when he arrived at the actor’s home and made the grisly discovery on Feb. 26, but told Fox News Digital that he is “heartbroken.” The owner of MudCity Builders in Santa Fe, he served as a personal contractor for Hackman and Arakawa for over 16 years.

Authorities believe Hackman, who was 95, and Arakawa, who was 63, had been dead for more than a week, but have not yet determined the cause of either’s death.

Audio of Kesler’s 911 call was obtained by Fox News Channel on Wednesday. In it, Kesler frantically pleaded for police to immediately rush to the New Mexico residence. In the recording, he can be heard telling the operator that he “found two or one deceased person[s] inside a house.”

“Please send somebody really quick,” Kesler urged.

Kesler said Hackman and Arakawa treated people “like gold,” and that he, his son and all of his employees remembered only pleasant encounters with the couple.

GENE HACKMAN AND WIFE’S DEATHS CALLED ‘SUSPICIOUS,’ BODIES SHOWED SIGNS OF ‘MUMMIFICATION’

Leading up to the strange death, Kesler said he never noticed anything unusual and he want people to remember Hackman and Arakawa as “beautiful people, kind-hearted and generous.”

Hackman and Arakawa were “beautiful people, kind-hearted and generous.”

— Jesse Kesler

A criminal investigation into the death of Hackman and his wife was launched Wednesday after New Mexico authorities deemed the deaths, and that of one of their dogs, suspicious. Officials confirmed no external trauma was seen on either Hackman or Arakawa, and the case remains open pending autopsy and toxicology results. 

The bodies of Hackman and Arakawa tested negative for carbon monoxide poisoning and the Oscar-winning actor likely died about nine days before his body was discovered by authorities, officials have revealed.

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During a news conference Friday, Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza confirmed the last event noted on Hackman’s pacemaker was Feb. 17. When asked if Feb. 17 — nine days before his body was found — could be the day Hackman died, Mendoza noted that was a logical conclusion.

“According to the pathologist, I think that is a very good assumption that that was his last day of life,” Mendoza said. He also confirmed after a discussion with the medical examiner that Hackman and his wife “tested negative for carbon monoxide.”

“The manner and cause of death has not been determined,” Mendoza said.

LISTEN: Gene Hackman 911 call

Although Kesler declined to elaborate on what he saw, he was heard on audio crying and repeatedly saying, “Damn,” as the dispatcher spoke to paramedics.

“[The house] is closed. It’s locked. I can’t go in,” he said. “But I see that she is lying down on the floor from the window.”

The caller told the dispatcher that Hackman and his wife were not “awake” or “alert.”

“No, dude, they’re not moving! Just send somebody out here really quick!” the man on the 911 call said with urgency. 

Fox News Digital’s Larry Fink and Stephanie Giang-Paunon contributed to this report.